Dr. Rochelle Hines and Dr. Dustin Hines are career-brain researchers and a husband-wife team who are working to advance the development of mental health psychedelic therapeutics from their University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) lab in a new project called Tessellate.
Having earned their Ph. D.s from the University of British Columbia and undertaken extensive post-doctoral training in neuroscience (Tufts University School of Medicine), the Hines have worked at the academia-industry juncture over their combined 40-plus-year careers.
The Hines Group Laboratory at UNLV is their accredited pre-clinical psychedelic research facility. Dr. Rochelle holds a license from the DEA, which allows her to handle controlled substances for accredited research purposes.
The recently launched Tessellate is set to be a next-wave pharmaceutical company to further advance the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics for various mental health conditions through rigorous, evidence-based discovery, with the goal of improving the efficacy and personalization of psychedelic therapies while mitigating the possible risks arising from them.
The company is preparing to initiate Phase 1 clinical trials on its two lead candidates, Tsl8 108 and Tsl8 303 while advancing preclinical validation.
Tessellate’s Innovations
The new company has developed and tested multiple lead synthetic psychedelic molecules in the novel chemical space of substituted phenethylamines (PEA). Its ensemble of six libraries consists of a total of 30 candidates in pre-clinical development for the treatment of major depressive disorder and PTSD.
“PEA psychedelics, which bear structural similarity to mescaline, are less explored in the psychedelic space and offer several possible advantages including increased specificity for the common target of psychedelics, known as the 5HT2A receptor,” Dr. Dustin explained.
Yet, Tessellate's most valuable intellectual property might involve its unusual discoveries & insights into understanding the psychedelic experience, also known as the "trip."
Based on a deep understanding of the architecture of brain activity that underlies the experience, the company has developed a sequence of four distinct classes of trip modulators, which can be taken during psychedelic administration, as well as before and after a therapeutic session, to modulate both the patient experience as well as the therapeutic outcome.
Tessellate's president, Paul Rosen said they perceive this as game-changing technology and essential for the development of the psychedelic industry as a whole in that it addresses several concerns and anxieties that eligible patients may have regarding this type of therapy.
“With one modulator a patient can access an offramp during a trip should they wish to stop. With another modulator a patient can remove the need to stop their current SSRI therapy before initiating psychedelic treatment. With a modulator taken pre-trip the patient may enhance the efficacy of their trip, and with a modulator taken post-trip the patient may solidify the psychoplastogen effects that psychedelics cause in the days following a trip,” Rosen further detailed.
Photo courtesy of Tessellate
